Philippine Sanitation Alliance PHILIPPINE SANITATION ALLIANCE Final Report

Philippine Sanitation Alliance Final Report promotions – and achieving full cost recovery through user fees. Effective promotion campaigns were critical to ensuring public cooperation and willingness to pay for sanitation services. The project was able to be flexible in its activities, focusing resources on those partners that were very active and forging new partnerships with those where results were more likely. Exchange visits by mayors, city councilors and water district managers were very useful in spurring project development. The two USAID-Rotary projects implemented by the PSA achieved substantial results, but were found to be too ambitious in scope and complexity given the readiness and expectations of all the partners involved. II. PROJECT DESCRIPTION The USAID PSA was a four-year project that worked with public and private sector partners to reduce public health risks, protect biodiversity and other natural resources by developing low-cost, sustainable wastewater treatment systems and the policies and promotion campaigns needed to make them effective. The PSA leveraged substantial private and public sector investments in sanitation, increased capacity of local governments and water districts to address sanitation challenges, and increased public awareness and demand for improved sanitation services and willingness to pay user fees. AECOM International Development, a USAID grantee, implemented the PSA from October 1, 2007 to September 30, 2011. The project was funded by the USAID Global Development Alliance and the USAID/Philippines mission. The PSA expanded upon two previous projects: Phase 1 and 2 of the Local Initiatives for Affordable Wastewater Treatment (LINAW), which was implemented by AECOM from 2003 to 2007. A. GOAL AND OBJECTIVES Goal: Protect biodiversity in key biodiversity areas (KBAs)1 and reduce public health risks by promoting proper hygiene and reducing the amount of pollution discharged into the environment. Objectives: Work with public and private sector partners to demonstrate that affordable wastewater treatment systems can be implemented in subdivisions and low-cost urban housing developments; Provide technical assistance to commercial establishments such as hospitals, hotels, markets and slaughterhouses to develop sewage treatment facilities using appropriate, low-maintenance technologies; and Improve sanitation and hygiene practices and willingness to pay for improved sanitation services through effective promotion campaigns. Provide technical assistance to national associations, such as the Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA) and the League of Cities of the Philippines (LCP), to replicate the PSA approach throughout the country and to establish the institutional capacity for continuing this assistance; and Strengthen governance to reduce threats to biodiversity. The PSA focused on three private sector areas: housing, hotels and restaurants, and hospitals and worked with cities and water districts. See the list of partners below. 1 While biodiversity protection was a goal of the project, the strategy to achieve this was to reduce pollution flowing to water bodies from domestic wastewater, which is the major source of organic pollution in many key water bodies. This is explained further in the section on biodiversity (Section IV. F). Page 2

Philippine Sanitation Alliance Final Report B. PARTNERS The following table lists the partner organizations that were involved in the PSA project. Table 1. PSA Partner Organizations Private Sector Private Companies Coca-Cola Philippines C TRADE Max’s Restaurants National Associations Chamber of Real Estate and Builders’ Associations (CREBA) Philippine Hospital Association League of Cities of the Philippines Hotel and Restaurant Association of the Philippines The Blacksmith Institute Rotary International Lola Grande Foundation Gawad Kalinga Solid Waste Management Association of the Philippines Non-Governmental Organizations Bremen Overseas Research and Development Association (BORDA) Philippine Local Governments and Water Districts Calbayog City Dumaguete City Meycauayan City Cagayan de Oro City Laguna Water District Muntinlupa City Calamba Water District Davao City Water District Metro Cebu Water District Metro Naga Water District Sta. Rosa City Zambaonga City World Bank Water and Sanitation Program (WSP) and Program for Sustainable Sanitation in East Asia (SuSEA) Philippine Ecological Sanitation Network (PEN) Mindanao Economic Development Council (MEDCo) Housing and Urban Development Coordination Council (HUDCC) Other Government/Donor Department of Natural Resources (DENR) Department of Health (DOH) Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) C. APPROACH The PSA approach was to provide technical assistance for public and private sector partners to develop, finance, operate and maintain wastewater and septage treatment facilities and promote improved hygiene practices. The project followed the USAID Global Development Alliance’s focus on developing publicprivate alliances to mobilize the ideas, efforts and resources of governments, businesses, and civil society to increase economic growth, protect the environment and improve public health. Three sectors were selected to engage with private business partners: housing, hotels and restaurants, and hospitals. The PSA was stakeholder-driven and participatory, ensuring rapid replication of appropriate sanitation solutions by leveraging private-sector platforms, promoting appropriate technologies and collaborating on finance, promotion and policy reform. AECOM staff and consultants worked with cities to create technical working groups (TWGs) and worked with a team leader to organize a stakeholder workshop to develop action plans with short, medium and long term priorities. Most of the cities chose to start with a small, easy intervention first such as a treatment facility for the public market and other point sources (including privately owned sources such as hotels and restaurants, hospitals and housing developments), then move up to city-wide septage Page 3

Philippine Sanitation Alliance Final Report management, and then in the future plan to build a sewerage system and address the needs of informal settlers without proper toilet facilities. Putting city ordinances in place and implementing effective promotion campaigns were key measures needed for the projects to be successful and sustainable. The following figure shows how the three areas need to come together in order to achieve sustainable results. It is included in the USAID 10-Step Promotion Toolkit, which was developed by the USAID Environmental Cooperation-Asia (ECO-Asia) program, a regional program based in the Regional Development Mission/Asia in Bangkok. The toolkit guides city and water district partners to develop a comprehensive and very effective promotion program to change behavior. Figure 1. Achieving Sustainable Results Supporting Environment: Political will, policies, user fees Appropriate Technology: Infrastructure, Products, Services When activities are happening at the same time in the same places with the same audiences, it increases the likelihood of sustained change Promotion The PSA was demand-driven: it provided technical assistance to the cities, water districts and private sector partners that requested help in developing wastewater treatment facilities. However, priority was given to the partners that demonstrated the most capacity to fund and develop the treatment facilities. The PSA recognized the important role that women, as household managers, play in sanitation and hygiene. The project encouraged city partners to include women in the technical working groups that plan and make decisions on project activities and focused on mothers and barangay health workers to promote hygiene. The project encouraged women to attend project workshops and training activities, and reported project indicator results disaggregated by gender. III. RESULTS The project successfully met or surpassed all of its 10 indicator targets. A description of these indicators and process for data collection and reporting can be found in the project monitoring and evaluation plan. The project started with six indicators and four were added during the course of the project when additional funds and activities were added. A summary of the results is presented below. Annex A contains results for fiscal year (FY) 2011 and Annex B contains results broken down by each of the four years of the project. Page 4

Philippine Sanitation Alliance Final Report A. SUMMARY OF RESULTS The following table summarizes the PSA project’s results for each of its ten indicators. Table 2. Summary of Results Indicator 1. Number of people in target areas with access to improved sanitation facilities as a result of USG assistance (disaggregated by gender). Project Target 1,240,000 Results 658,507 Men 757,876 Women 1,416,383 Total 2. Number of feasibility and special studies/plans prepared 14 16 3. Amount of non-USAID financing mobilized for sanitation projects and facilities. 3,700,000 4,182,575 4. Number of people trained in environmental law, enforcement, public participation, and cleaner production policies, strategies, skills and techniques, disaggregated by gender. 1500 1,681 Men 1,334 Women 3,015 Total 5. Number of people trained in child health and nutrition through USGsupported health area programs.* 1500 1,114 Men 1,800 Women 2,914 Total 6. Increase in the percentage of mothers of children under five who can cite at least 2 measures to prevent diarrhea. 25% 40.6% 7. Increase in the percentage of students who, while at school, observably wash their hands with soap and clean water after using the toilet to prevent diarrhea. 25% 31.4% 8. Number of pollution and urban environment policies, laws, agreements or regulations implemented as a result of USG assistance. 6 12 9. Number of hygiene-related policies, laws, agreements or regulations implemented as a result of USG assistance. 2 3 10 10 10. Number of wastewater treatment projects developed by PSA partners that reduce pollution to levels that meet the government’s effluent standards. B. DETAILS OF RESULTS 1. Number of People with Improved Access to Sanitation The PSA assisted its partners in developing and securing financing for 45 projects, which are expected to provide 1,416,383 people with access to improved sanitation once all the facilities are constructed and operating. As of September 30, 2011, the city-wide septage management projects were not yet completed, so the actual number of people with access to improved sanitation was quite small, only 28,936, which were for onsite treatment facilities for housing projects, slaughterhouses, public markets, etc. The remaining 1,387,447 people are expected to have improved access over the next few months and years as the septage management systems, which PSA helped to develop and secure financing, get completed. PSA partners experienced delays in completing septage management programs by the end of the project due to the elections in May 2010 and other competing priorities in the cities and water districts. Another factor was that a great deal of PSA staff time, specifically that of the Chief of Party, was spent on developing, launching and implementing two USAID-Rotary projects, both of which required more time Page 5

Philippine Sanitation Alliance Final Report than planned. This left less time for facilitating the septage management programs. management programs included in the reported figure include: The septage San Fernando City – The treatment facility is under construction and is expected to be completed by the end of 2011. The septage management ordinance with user fee was passed; Zamboanga City – The septage management ordinance with user fee was passed and several private companies already have treatment facilities. The city has completed its terms of reference to contract several of these companies to collect and treat the septage; Metro Naga Water District – The Naga City council is deliberating on the septage management ordinance. MNWD completed the detailed engineering design for the treatment facility, has begun acquiring the lot, has allocated P40 million for the project and plans to borrow the rest of the funds needed; Laguna Water District – The municipal council of Los Baños has approved the septage management ordinance, identified a site for the LWD to use to build a treatment facility, and initiated negotiations with the owner of the lot. LWD will enter into a build-operate-transfer arrangement with a private company as soon as the land is purchased. Cagayan de Oro City – The city council drafted a septage management ordinance that has gone through two public hearings and is in the final stages of approval by the city council. A private company will be contracted to provide the treatment and collection services. The city council has informally deliberated on the terms and conditions of an unsolicited proposal submitted by a private investor. A complete list of the number of people reported for each project is contained in Annex C. 2. Number of Feasibility and Special Studies/Plans Prepared The PSA prepared city action plans generated during stakeholder workshops and refined by the technical working groups, initial engineering designs for wastewater treatment plants (WTPs) and septage treatment plants, and operation and maintenance (O&M) manuals. T

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Philippine Sanitation Alliance (PSA) was a four-year program that worked with public and private sector partners to reduce public health risks, protect biodiversity and other natural resources by developing and implementing stakeholder-driven sanitation initiatives.